The Ugly RIC traveller

If only all travellers from Russia, India and China were so well-behaved. Source: Flickr/russianpanda

A new breed of travellers from Russia, India and China seem to be on a mission to ruin their countries’ reputations overseas.

Before I write this article, I would like
to make it clear that as a person who has been closely associated with Russia,
India and China throughout my adult life, I have nothing but the greatest
amount of respect for the warm, cultured and refined people of these three
great countries. This respect of course does not blind me to the way some
citizens of these countries behave overseas and on a recent holiday, I
witnessed some rather unpleasant behaviour from my fellow RIC citizens.

Act
1: A Russian couple walks into an elevator of a
5-star hotel. They’d been arguing for a while it seems. “Sasha, you lying
*******,” screams the wife. The husband responds using the worst imaginable
Russian words possible. Stuck in that elevator, I kindly tell them to keep the
volume down and that there are some people who understand them. The man
responds by calling me a (censored) Armenian! “You Armenians and Azeris are
everywhere!” This man had a problem with an alleged Armenian being in an Asian
country.

When I realised that there was no point in
talking sense with these savages, I got off on an earlier floor and went
straight back to the reception to complain. As I came to know from a frustrated
receptionist, I wasn’t the first person who had a problem with that Russian couple.
“They are all crazy,” the receptionist said. “The Russians come here, get drunk
and then often get violent...What is wrong with their country?” I then found
myself defending Russia and Russians and telling her not to judge Russia on the
basis of these idiots.

Throughout my travels, I heard the choicest
Russian phrases; words that would not be uttered in polite society but then
again these members of the nouveau-riche couldn’t care less what someone thought
of their behaviour. Living in Russia, I rarely encountered these kinds of
people and when I did; my friends were quick to point out that they were from
“bad families.”

My fellow Indians, who tend to be less
violent or aggressive overseas, don’t exactly behave like model citizens by any
stretch of the imagination. Often travelling in groups, they seem to have no
respect for their surroundings or for locals and other travellers.

Act
2: At the check-in counter for a flight back to
India, a large group of people that look more like traders than vacationers hog
up the queue. All of them are armed with boxes of flat-screen televisions and a
few suitcases with more weight than their tickets allow them. The check-in
process becomes cumbersome and long because these ‘travellers’ are bargaining
and arguing with the airline staff about how much they can take home without
paying.

I feel genuinely sorry for the stressed
staff, who probably have to go through this routine every single day. On this
given day when I finally did reach the front of the queue, I could still see
the smile coming from the girl at the check-in and she was relieved when I said
that I just have one suitcase. It almost surprised her that I greeted her back
and smiled and was patient. Such is the reputation that my countrymen have
created in places that Indians tread.

On board the aircraft, I was trapped
between these passengers, who were determined to create a ruckus. It felt more like
Saurashtra Mail (a train that connects Mumbai with the southern part of Gujarat)
than an aircraft. These people were intent on using their cellular phones,
getting up to take things out of their overhead baggage racks even when the
plane was in taxi. Instructions from the cabin crew had to be oft-repeated
since these people were intent on pushing their seats back in a reclining
position during take-off. They also seemed to have unquenchable thirsts and
kept calling the air-hostesses at very short intervals. The crew on board were
trained to deal with these people but surely it can’t be a pleasant experience
having to encounter such types on a daily basis.

These are the kinds of people that
disappear after the airport. I wonder where they come from and where they go. I
definitely (with much gratitude) don’t see these types in India, whether I am
in my hometown or travelling.

A fellow traveller staying at a hostel said
that he had trouble sleeping since his hostel was full of young Chinese
students. I laughed at him and said that from my experiences, they are quiet
and well-behaved and if I dare to say so, timid. The traveller had the same
impression before he set up shop in that hostel. The horror stories then
followed: Drunken screaming and loud music late into the night, an unbelievable
mess in the common areas with half-eaten food left on plates that weren’t cleared
even in the evening... I dismissed this as students being students until I was
a witness to similar behaviour.

Act
3: The same up-market hotel where I met the
“pleasant” Russian couple had a large group of Chinese travellers. The tables
at the riverside dining hall where a buffet breakfast was being served were
left in a shocking condition! It was like the students from the hostel where my
traveller-friend was staying metamorphosised into wealthy adults. The less I
write about the table-manners of these people, the better.

It wasn’t just the lack of etiquette at
restaurants that made these Chinese travellers stand out. It was also a blatant
disrespect for fellow travellers, which seemed to border on the level of the
annoying Indians and Russians. Jumping queues, not even a slight gesture of
apology when bumping someone (even if was an accident), sitting in front of
people at screenings in a museum, without caring if they were blocking anyone’s
views... These were the hallmarks of travellers from the Middle Kingdom. I am
quite sure that these people weren’t from the elite circles of Beijing or
Shanghai but probably members of the nouveau-riche from provinces like Kunming,
which are now only a drive away from Southeast Asia.

Unless someone teaches this section of
travellers from Russia, India and China manners and courtesy, it’s those of us
that do know how to behave that will be affected by the stereotypes that are a
result of such distasteful behaviour.